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Sunday, 25 December 2011

Our Christmas Day Menu

We had a really relaxed Christmas Day this year. In previous years we have invited others who would normally be alone at Christmas to join us for a shared Christmas Dinner. This year however we decided to just keep things low key and have the day solely for my husband, myself, and our three daughters.

Here's our Christmas Dinner Menu:

Roast Leg of Lamb

Our leg of lamb was 2.1kg in weight and put it in a cooking bag and roasted it for 2 hours at 180C.

I removed the lamb from the oven and left it to rest for about 30 minutes whilst I cooked the other vegetables.

We also had steamed cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and crispy roast potatoes.

I also made some Mint Sauce to accompany the roast lamb using:

1 small handful mint leaves

1 Tbsp sugar

4 Tblsp boiling water

4 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Finely chop the mint leaves into a heatproof jug and pour over the boiling water. Stir in the sugar and leave to stand for 10 minutes or so. Add the vinegar and check the taste. You can sharpen the tang by adding a little more vinegar if you want.

There is enough leftover lamb to make a shepherds pie our moussaka for dinner tomorrow night and also have on sandwiches for lunch.

Use an electric beater to beat the egg white in a clean, dry bowl until firm peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is thick and glossy.

Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle. Pipe 5cm-round nests, about 5cm apart, on the paper.

Reduce oven to 100°C. Bake for 1 hour or until crisp and dry. Turn oven off. Leave mini pavlovas the in oven, with the door closed, to cool completely.

Lemon Curd

2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar

1/3 cup (80g) chilled unsalted butter

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Whisk the whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then put the saucepan over a low heat. Add the butter, lemon juice and zest then whisk continuously until the mixture has thickened. Strain through a sieve into a sterilised jar. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks. If you have leftover lemon curd you can use it the next day to spread on toast, pancakes, or even give someone a jar of lemon curd as a gift as part of a homemade hamper.

What did you cook for your Christmas Dinner? What are your favourite, must have dishes, to enjoy on Christmas Day?﻿

3 comments:

Could be grease in the bowl or on the beaters, they need to be super clean. Also if the eggs are too fresh or if caster sugar not totally dissolved then it can be flat. If you take it out of the oven before it's completely cool it can sink too. Pavs can be tricky. Betcha her's tasted fab though! x